EDIT: I realised I forgot to put Magneton in the NFE usage.
EDIT2: I realised I forgot to put Magneton, Absol, Cryogonal and Quagsire among potential leavers.
EDIT3: You probably know it already, but Snover is BL, so he won't be RU.

NU Co-Leader

Hey guys. It's been quite a while since I've posted one of my teams, but I finally got another one that's worth the effort. I've been using this team on the ladder the past two months or so, and it's definitely not short of achievements in that respect. I don't have screenshots because of that first reset, but I was somewhere around 600-55 between various accounts using this team alone, and at one point I had every single alt in the top 5. The alts that I used the most, Grounded and Zebraiken, sat at the top of the ladder ever since I had began laddering with this team. It was just downright one of the most fun teams I had ever played with, and I've really enjoyed laddering with it regardless of how stupid the NU ladder gets sometimes (I mean really, Acupressure + Mud Slap Dodrio?). The Heist also went 5-2 throughout the NU Open, losing only to mfhoundoom (who basically brought everything that this team struggles with in one match) and FLCL, who won the whole shabang.

The Heist started off by being a rather silly attempt to use Life Orb Torterra + Rock Polish Golurk + SR Golem all together on one team (hence the alt name Grounded), but it gradually evolved throughout a few hundred matches to the bulky offense team that it is today. It has very few poor matchups and only really struggles against rare threats, primarily Ice-types like Articuno (especially if I cannot keep SR up) and grounded Poison-types like Muk or Arbok. This team was essentially the harbinger of the infamous Bulk Up Braviary, although I can't quite say it was built to perfectly capitalize off of BU Brav's capabilities - rather, Braviary was just the perfect glue for an otherwise decent-at-best team and pushed this team to make it what it is. That said, it's really started burning out on me and I'm just not having as much fun using it as I used to. Plus, people have actually started to use things that beat it, which is a real shame. I'm not saying you shouldn't use it on the ladder anymore, but everyone's much more prepared for the threats that this team carries and these cores have become very common nowadays, meaning that more often than not people will have the tools to break this kind of team apart.

This team is named after the absolutely fantastic album from Macklemore, which was released a little while ago and I've been listening to it daily since (sorry Heist, I didn't really mean to name this after you but it just worked out that way!). If you haven't heard it yet, go give it a listen. Also, just a warning: this is quite a hefty read, so turn back now if you don't want to read a lot, haha. I'd prefer to thoroughly explain how I used this team and how I built it to help out those who are new to the tier or want to learn more about it rather than keep it short just for the sake of it. :) Lastly, throwing out props to FLCL, MMF, and Raseri in particular for being amazing friends and helping me work out the kinks on this team and many others throughout the last few months. You guys (and everyone else in #neverused) are the best.

​

this the part of the show
where it all fades away
where the lights fade to black
and the band leaves the stage
and you wanted an encore, but there's no encore today
because the moment is now, can't get it back from the grave

I originally wanted to build a team around LO Torterra. MMF and I were talking about how awesome it was in the current metagame, and he had just built his own team with it and was smashing up the ladder. LO Torterra was cool because it's essentially one of the best bulky pivots available in NU, and it also wrecked Alomoongus with SR or some kind of hazards up, 2HKOing both of 'em. It did take a fuckton of recoil from using Wood Hammer on Alomomola, but I planned to make my team be able to abuse its absence as well as get as many opportunities for Torterra to wreck as it could.

Naturally, the next step was to pick out an offensive partner who creates opportunities for Torterra to smash and hopefully benefited from it. LO Torterra puts the most pressure on physically defensive walls like Alomomola and Regirock, so ideally this offensive partner would be some kind of physical sweeper to continue our focus on breaking through teams from the physical spectrum. It'd make no sense to pair Torterra with something like Gorebyss, as they already would just clear out the same walls and provide no other benefits to one another aside from Torterra being immune to Electric-type attacks. Instead, I decided that I wanted to pick out a bird (ie, Swellow or Braviary) who could lure Rock- and Steel-types and U-turn into Torterra to either force them out and smack something else hard or to get rid of them and allow Swellow / Braviary to sweep later in the game.

I actually settled with Swellow instead of Braviary for a few reasons. Firstly, I didn't want to make an incredibly slow team which I'm rather prone to doing. That speed issue would've only been fixed by chucking a Scarf onto Braviary, and since I feel like that's a waste of Braviary's potential I just avoided that altogether. Secondly... actually, I'm fairly sure speed was the only reason I picked Swellow > Braviary. I did plan to add Spikes to the team after this. Maybe the fact that Swellow abuses Spikes better than Braviary also influenced me, I dunno.

Between Swellow and Torterra I figured I'd be forcing plenty of switches, and I was honestly dying to try out an offensive Garbodor set so I decided that I wanted to throw on Spikes at this point. I think I used Gunk Shot / Drain Punch / Seed Bomb / Spikes with max speed + Jolly - Garbo sits at a nice speed tier which lets him outspeed some relevant offensive threats like +Spe Ludicolo and Samurott, as well as neutral Absol, and hit them all pretty hard. It gives me an option between just spiking up and going on the offensive and options are always good. :)

I stopped for about an hour or so here because I just couldn't think of what I wanted to add next, so I just threw on Rock Polish Golurk because I wanted to test it out (plus it outspeeds Scarf Rotom-A!). It also spinblocks for Garbodor and appreciates Torterra's ability to smash stuff in the early game. I don't really have any other reasons for it besides that I really hadn't used Golurk before and I wanted to give a non-CB set a go (since CB was all the rage at the time).

I took stock of what I had here and realized I was absolutely reamed by Gorebyss as well as generally any boosting Water-type; NP + Salac Simipour, SD Samurott, probably even CM Golduck would all have their way with the team that I had so far. Also, any random rain team could come in and clean up. I decided to give Ludicolo a go because it's generally a great check to every boosting Water-type and at least gives me a chance to win the speed tie against SD Samurott (I think I accidentally used Scarf Ludicolo in my first match but I fixed it immediately afterwards lol).

Likewise, I didn't carry any Flying-type resists and adding Ludicolo made me even weaker to opposing Swellow and Scarf Braviary. I added Golem, who is probably my all-time favorite SR setter in NU and was generally amazing now that people had stopped over-preparing for it a while back (looking at you, Bullet Seed Cacturne!). It's just the most reliable SR user in the tier aside from Regirock, and Golem's Sturdy is an amazing lifesaving tool when you need it. Right before I started laddering with this team, I noticed that I actually had 3 Ground-types on it, hence the alt name Grounded. =]

I played a few matches and got lucky in some of them against some incredibly dangerous threats that I had totally forgotten about while I was teambuilding. For one, Gurdurr had next to no troubles running through me, which is somewhat surprising since I carried all of Garbodor, Swellow, and Golurk. However, both Garbo and Golurk had difficulty touching Gurdurr since I was using the offensive Garbo set w/o Clear Smog or anything and Golurk was a Jolly LO variant (for outspeeding Rotom-S at +2) and was outdamaged 1 vs 1. Piloswine also had little trouble with my team, tanking hits from basically everything and revenging all of Swellow, Torterra, and Golurk with Ice Shard while Garbo and Golem couldn't touch it and were reamed by EQ. I also got demolished by an SD Samurott who won the tie with my own Ludicolo. I think I also almost got wrecked by a NP Raichu with HP Ice at one point, which was a bit embarrassing.

Having this many issues after only a few matches usually means a few things to me: either I'm misplaying horribly, or my team isn't built as well as I originally imagined it was. I looked back through what I had and figured that more than anything, RP Golurk was being absolutely dead weight and really only doubled up on weaknesses. It also never ever got the opportunity to set up and when it did, it was too weak to make any kind of impact on the opposing team. So, I went back and said screw that, let's use something else fast and cool and preferably able to at least check most of these issues I was having. I ended up picking out a Simipour because it seemed to fit - outsped Raichu, OHKOed Piloswine, checked SD Samurott. It doesn't really beat Gurdurr in any significant way but at least I cut something that already was losing to Gurdurr, right?

Experimentation doesn't always work out though. :/ Simipour underperformed in every scenario and actually made me tremendously weak to opposing Ludicolo (well actually it didn't make it much worse than before, but it was complete set-up bait for Ludi). The set I used (SubNP + Salac) still lost to Samurott because I had to choose between either Ice Beam or HP Electric for coverage, and I wasn't about to auto-lose to any Amoonguss that decided to switch in. It's not like it was particularly awful, it just definitely wasn't what I was looking for with this team. Instead, I settled with using ol' reliable, my own SD Samurott. Even if it didn't check everything I was expecting it to on paper, I didn't really care. Samurott is probably my favorite Pokemon to use in NU, simply because it's so incredibly reliable in the sense that it'll do its job no matter what team (or how bad of a team) you throw it onto. Samurott's Aqua Jet would also help me keep a lot of faster threats like Cinccino, Swellow etc that I was struggling with.

Samurott helped a little bit, but I was still really struggling with fast Normal-types (primarily Cinccino, Zangoose and to a lesser extent Kangaskhan) because I play incredibly suicidally with Golem, as well as stuff like Emboar and Braviary, who I really had nothing to switch into. Swellow could revenge all of these but I couldn't afford to sacrifice anything whenever something dangerous came in to try to revenge it later. There were several changes I toyed with here, but ultimately I settled on the fact that I had to get rid of Swellow. It was doing a really good job of U-turning on Rock- and Steel-types to give Torterra an opportunity to attack, but aside from that and revenging said threats it really wasn't holding its water on an otherwise bulky offense team. After a bit of thought, I decided that I should use Gurdurr instead. Gurdurr is probably one of the best Normal-type checks in the tier, especially given the fact that it doesn't carry a resist to them. It can live a hit from almost anything of that nature (only CB Braviary and Guts-boosted Swellow can OHKO it with their STAB Flying-type moves) and retaliate back with Drain Punch and then Mach Punch for the KO. It gave me a sense of security that Swellow never provided and it turned out to be an excellent addition to the team.

Swellow wasn't the only Pokemon underperforming, though. While the Garbodor set I had been using was neat in theory (being able to outspeed and OHKO both Ludicolo and Absol), it really didn't work as well on paper as it did in practice. What I really needed more than anything was a better Cinccino check and Emboar switch-in. Gurdurr did an okay job at this, except he was actually 2HKOed by both of them after SR which was a real pain. I ended up switching up my Garbodor set to a defensive spread with a Rocky Helmet, and decided I'd try out a few moves that had previously gone unused by most other Garbodor. I'm particularly proud of that set as it became my go-to for a ton of threats in the current meta and really was what made this team jump above 'average'. I'll go into more detail about it in the in-depth explanations!

At this point, I felt like my team was very solid but definitely not perfect. There were still a few major weaknesses, notably the fact that Musharna was a giant pain in the ass, as it is for many a team. It could set up on all of Garbodor, Gurdurr, and Golem with impunity, while Ludicolo really couldn't do anything to it after a boost, Samurott had to nail two 90% accurate Megahorns (missing them cost me the match several times...) and Torterra had to basically suicide itself to Overgrow range with Wood Hammer to make more than a dent into it. It was also super difficult to break through Alomoonguss cores, even though Garbodor could now set up Spikes all day on them. Making changes this late into the game is really never easy, but the one conclusion I kept coming back to was that Samurott... while one of my favorite mons and generally being effective in nearly every match, did not have any real purpose on this team. I decided to replace it with Skuntank, which did essentially everything I needed Samurott to do - check Ludicolo, revenge various things, whatever - and also eliminated Musharna for me. Having a guaranteed Musharna counter was absolutely amazing and meant that I wouldn't have to sacrifice nearly all of my team when facing the fetus thing just to get it to the point that I could kill it.

Skuntank didn't really fix my susceptibility to Alomoonguss, though. It wasn't that I couldn't beat them, it was just that my only means of doing so was too easily taken advantage of. Not only was it difficult for Torterra to reliably switch in on either Amoonguss or Alomomola (being neutral to all their attacks and susceptible to every status move that both carry...) but it had difficulties even just performing the job it was meant to do. If I were to try to switch it into Alomomola but accidentally catch a Toxic, I'd have to WH on the Protect, try to nail Amoonguss with EQ on the switch-in, then I have to guess whether or not he'll go back to Alom or stay in or switch out to something else entirely to Regen back up and all the while I'm taking Toxic damage, WH recoil damage, LO recoil damage... It didn't help that Torterra absolutely floundered against any kind of offensive team, whose members are almost always faster than Torterra. All signs pointed to the fact that Torterra was holding my team back and I needed to find something else to do its job better.

I tested out various stallbreakers over Torterra, but most didn't fulfill my expectations and were too easily taken advantage of, or they were set up on by other things that my team really didn't need to be dealing with. I was QC checking a Braviary set where I stumbled upon a suggestion by user: alexwolf that Braviary might want to use a Sub + Bulk Up set to set up on Alomomola etc. I figured that I might as well test it (but with strong Brave Bird over weak Return) and it turned out to be a perfect fit for this team and propelled this team far and above my expectations. KACAW

And that is how I built this team! I know that those pictures aren't in the order that I'll talk about them but they are outside of this spoiler and I'm too lazy to go back and change them now.

If you've never seen this set, you definitely haven't played NU in the last like six months. This is the most standard set for Golem and has been around for ages, but it still works wonderfully time and time again. I think there was a little stint in late BW1 NU where Toxic (over Sucker Punch) was absolutely amazing for luring Quagsire and Tangela, but other than that this is the tried and true Golem set and it hasn't changed. It's typically my lead unless I spy a potential counter-lead like Samurott or Cacturne, and I'll change my lead accordingly. Nearly all players just assume I'll lead with Golem and that I will let them drop it to its Sturdy just to get up SR - while that is all Golem has to do in some matchups, I often rely on Golem to do a lot more than that and I'll save it for midgame or later. Otherwise, I usually play very suicidally with Golem and I'll stay in in most situations where people expect me to switch out (I really can't tell you how many people have tried to set up their Gorebyss on Golem while I just EQ + Sucker Punch for a free KO and my Sturdy not even broken).

Golem's got several utilities that are of varying importance to this team, mostly depending on team matchup. Sturdy is probably the best part about Golem and it's the primary reason I prefer it over any other Stealth Rock user. It's just useful in so many situations, letting me stay in without fear when stuff like the above Gorebyss situation happens, or helping me stall out rain turns or whatever by eating a Surf and using Rock Blast, then Sucker Punching whatever else to death. If the opponent carries any kind of spinner, I often keep Golem out of harm's way until I can kill off the spinner and set up SR safely. Getting up SR and keeping it is of utmost importance to this team, especially given how weak it can be to stuff like Articuno - also, if I let Golem drop to its Sturdy, all that I have left to check Braviary / Swellow is SR, various forms of priority, and residual damage via Aftermath and Rocky Helmet. Rock Blast is vital to deal with stuff like Baton Pass teams which sort of had a spike in popularity a while ago but people stopped using them for some reason despite the fact that they're incredible. I'll also save a 1 HP Golem if the opponent has no hazards up, because it means that later I've either got something to sack if needed or I can fire off a Sucker Punch and hopefully snipe something that's gotten out of control.

Lum Berry over Leftovers is nothing but personal preference; the utility from Leftovers is very useful sometimes (notably for getting Sturdy back from switching into SR) but I've found that I really prefer Lum Berry for security and not having to worry about stuff like fast Exeggutor preventing me from getting SR up with Sleep Powder. Lefties would certainly absolve a few weaknesses but at the same time it also creates a few others. There have been a few games where I wished I had Leftovers, but many others where I was really glad I had Lum. Also, I run a lot more Speed than standard (and actually I creep beyond this spread I gave), primarily to outrun Golurk and 2HKO it with Earthquake while it either brings Golem down to Sturdy or it just sets up its own SR. Golurk is actually one of the biggest threats to this team when played well, so taking it out with Golem early on gives me a great advantage for the midgame and beyond.​

I put my life on the line
I roll them dice and I'm fine
Cause all I ever dreamt about was makin' it
They ain't giving it, I'm taking it​

Garbodor is the glue that holds my team together, against offensive, balanced, and defensive teams alike. This set is probably my favorite Garbo set I've ever used, which is saying a lot since I've used quite a few Garbo sets. Most defensive or bulky Garbodor sets prior to this were usually some combination of Spikes or Toxic Spikes / Clear Smog / Gunk Shot / Rock Blast @ Lefties, but I always felt that those sets were missing a lot of utility and stability (plus having a 70% accurate attack as your STAB with no investment tends to be a pretty awful idea in my experience). Garbodor received Pain Split from BW2 tutors iirc, and it's what really makes this set better than most others as it gives Garbo legitimate recovery. Garbo can set up Spikes on literally every defensive Pokemon in the tier and fears nothing but Taunt (and Will-O-Wisp / Spore, kinda). Amoonguss, Alomomola, Miltank, Tangela, Cradily, Regirock, even Gurdurr - you name it, it's Spikes bait. Toxic is super useful against these kinds of teams too and lets Garbodor win all of these matchups one on one, as well as catching Musharna and Gardevoir on the switch-in. I've actually stalled many a Miltank out of Heal Bell PP entirely just because I could take a few Body Slams (while they take RH damage), Toxic it, Pain Split back up to full, etc. Pain Split just makes it sososo reliable at just getting up multiple layers over and over against defensive teams, it's not even funny.

That doesn't mean it's dead weight against offensive teams though, either. While it doesn't have nearly as many opportunities to stack up Spikes in a higher-paced offensive match, it usually can sneak its way in on a Fighting-type move and grab a layer or two. It's my favorite switch-in to stuff like Emboar, as Emboar will just Flare Blitz it and take more than half of its HP with Rocky Helm + recoil, and then take another dose of RH + recoil + Aftermath beyond that as it KOes Garbodor after I grab a layer (also fuck the people who still run Earthquake Emboar x_x). This works for just about everything too, from CB Braviary to Swellow to Kangaskhan or whatever else.

I run quite a lot of Speed, but this is mostly because I have found that I am weak to my own Braviary set. Being able to outrun the standard spread for BU Braviary and Toxic it after breaking its Sub is essentially the only way I can stop it from running over my team, unless a) it's running weak Return in which case Gurdurr can set up alongside it or b) I get lucky with some predictions from Skuntank and weaken it a bit and keep the Sub away, then force it out with Ludicolo. Rock Blast is also essentially a filler move. I had a few different moves there to test them all out earlier but I found I liked Rock Blast the best for two primary reasons. One, my team really doesn't like SubDisable Haunter at all, and I don't want to insta-lose to it if Skuntank dies. Two, it has occasionally hit more than twice and done significant damage to a very threatening Articuno lategame. I'd be fine with any suggestions for replacements, but keep in mind I've tested quite a lot of stuff and nothing fits too well there outside of Rock Blast, haha. ​

An incredibly standurrd set (so I probably won't have as much to say about it as the rest), but still one of my favorite mons to use. It has pretty solid defensive bulk and lets me check all of the incredibly dangerous Normal-types in NU, like Kangaskhan, Zangoose, Cinccino, etc. Garbodor is an excellent pivot and can rack up a ton of damage simply by switching into those guys, but most of the time I prefer to double switch Gurdurr in to threaten them out and rack up Spikes damage. Mach Punch also gives me a third form of priority (outside of Golem and Skuntank) and helps me finish off weakened stuff like Floatzel, Swellow, Zangoose and the like. Those all have priority, and are faster than Skuntank, so I really don't like trying to push the Sucker Punch mindgame with them and prefer to just finish them off with Mach Punch if they're in range.

Gurdurr is my primary tool against most offensive or hyper offense-esque teams. It's bulky enough to take a hit from just about anything except Psychic-types and boosted Flying-types (Choice Scarf Braviary fails to OHKO with Brave Bird!) and the combination of Drain Punch and Mach Punch allows it to take punishment and trade off a bit of its HP in exchange for KOing a threat that would otherwise run through my team. This is particularly helpful against stuff like Shell Smash Carracosta, who would 6-0 me if I didn't carry Gurdurr. I don't think there's anything else in the tier that gives me the combination of bulk, power, and priority that it carries. Against bulkier teams though, Gurdurr is more or less dead weight. It can't boost on really anything without fear of getting statused, and even with Guts activated it doesn't hit hard enough to break Musharna, Garbodor, or Alomomola. I have experimented with a couple different out-of-the-norm sets, like Toxic > Bulk Up to nail incoming Alomomola and Musharna, but it turned out to be more situational than helpful and I really missed being able to Bulk Up on more offensive teams and straight up sweeping. That, and people kept using dumb things like Rest + Curse Cradily when I wasn't using Bulk Up so yeaaah. If I were to replace anything on my team, this would be it... but I don't know if anything can even replace it for me. :(​

Underneath this fragile frame
Lives a battle between pride and shame
But I’ve misplaced that sense of fright
This crown of thorns is perched atop my spine
But listen closely as I testify
Dependency has been a thief at night
Thief at night, thief at night​

KACAW. SubBU Braviary is a monster, and anyone who has faced it will probably agree. It sets up on every defensive threat in NU bar Power Gem + Toxic Probopass, and even bulky Rock-types like Regirock are stalled out of Stone Edge / Rock Slide PP thanks to Substitute and Roost, and then Brav has freedom to just boost up to +6 / +6 and destroy everything. Braviary has 100 base HP on the dot, letting him make 101 Subs (preventing stuff like Seismic Toss Miltank, Hypno, and Lickilicky from ruining the fun). The given EV spread also always prevents Amoonguss's Sludge Bomb and Alomomola's Scald from OHKOing and 2HKOing Braviary's Sub respectively, and 80 Speed allows Braviary to outrun max Spe Adamant Rampardos (which I have lost a match to before, thanks to it outspeeding what I had before). This thing is next to impossible to beat if you don't carry any of the following: a bulky Electric-type, an Encore user, Golem or something that can use Rock Blast, or SubDisable Haunter. That's it. Super effective attacks? There was one match where I set up on a Choice Band Golurk locked into Ice Punch and proceeded to win the game.

This set is used rather than any other Braviary set because I needed something that could shred through defensive teams (especially Amoonguss) for me without suiciding itself on Brave Bird recoil + SR. I had Ludicolo, who is an awesome offensive threat, but a neutral nature 90 base Special Attack just isn't enough to punch through things like SpDef Amoonguss or Lickilicky. That said, SubBU Brav doesn't always hold its weight against more offensive teams. Against teams like Zangoose / Rotom-A / Ludicolo / whatever, Brav's role is usually just to tank some attacks that you wouldn't expect it to be able to (it lives a Swellow Facade, with no rocks up) and just hit hard with Brave Bird, even with no investment. One thing that I've seriously considered is changing the spread back up to 252 Atk / 252 Spe Jolly, which prevents it from being revenged / stopped by a lot more things (Ludicolo, Samurott, outspeeding Taunt Skuntank) and makes it significantly more useful against offensive teams as well as a lot stronger, but the additional special bulk and 101 HP subs are quite nice. I don't know, but being able to live a Rotom-A Thunderbolt has saved my ass in more than a few matches. It's worth thinking about if you plan on using this team, though.

Anyway, just to reiterate myself: Braviary is incredible and well-deserving of its S-rank in NU.​

Here we go back, this is the moment
Tonight is the night, we’ll fight till it’s over
So we put our hands up like the ceiling can’t hold us
Like the ceiling can’t hold us​

Another rather standard set, but one of the best "safety valve" Pokemon you can get. I actually disliked using Skuntank for quite a long time before FLCL converted me to appreciate it, and now I use it on like every team smh. I basically rely on Skuntank as a backup check to everything, even in situations like trying to face down a +2 Gorebyss that just crit my Ludicolo. I deviate from the standard spread a little (which is 20 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe, iirc) because I don't think the 20 HP is worth all that mach and it gives me the ability to tie with other skunks at the very worst, which has won me a skunk war multiple times. Poison Jab is much much much better than Crunch in my experience, as mono-Dark coverage is pretty mediocre and Poison Jab lets me do things like KO an Absol at ~60% and 2HKO Emboar on the switch-in. I can always play around Musharna and stuff too, since Skuntank puts pressure on Musharna and it's usually rather easy to identify what it's gonna do depending on how much HP Musharna has left and the decisions that my opponent has made throughout the match.

Aftermath is an awesome and underrated tool of Skuntank's. If I'm facing down something like CB Braviary and all I have left is Skuntank out and a slightly weakened Gurdurr in the back, Sucker Punch + Aftermath + BB recoil will push Braviary down into Mach Punch range for the win. If Braviary switched into SR, it's basically dead from BBing Skuntank. Outside of checking basically everything in NU, Skuntank's primary role is beating Musharna for the rest of my team. No matter what Musharna does, if I predict correctly I can push it into KO range for everything else on my team, especially after it takes hazard damage from switching back in later. Skuntank is also my go-to guy for getting damage onto dangerous Pokemon like Articuno (even though it's kinda pitiful damage, being able to Taunt it and at least try to poison it is always good) and Eelektross.

p.s. thank you to ium for drawing the picture of cute skuntank viciously murdering a musharna :>​

Make the money, don't let the money make you
Change the game, don't let the game change you
I'll forever remain faithful
All my people stay true​

IMO, Ludicolo is hands-down the best Pokemon in NU. It just checks so much as an offensive Pokemon while also being incredibly threatening after a single turn of setup... if you haven't used Ludicolo in NU yet, you should. Anyway, Ludi is my primary form of offense early to mid-game until I get Brav rolling, and is my primary method of forcing switches thanks to its insane coverage. Just about everything that can "reliably" switch into Ludicolo is set-up bait for Garbodor, and I often make use of double-switching early in the game to drop a few layers and make it easier on Ludicolo when the opponent's team needs to be put out of its misery. What's really nice is that Ludicolo puts a ton of pressure on every single spinner in the tier, threatening to OHKO all of them before they can get a spin off which really eases my worries about them. Spinners are always a pain for teams like this that carry hazards but no Ghost-type, but I am really not too worried about them simply because Ludicolo is mitey.

While it's an excellent offensive tool, Ludicolo also holds my team together against basically every other Water-type in NU. Being able to live a +2 Gorebyss Ice Beam and OHKOing in return is something that nothing else in the tier can do. I've thought about running a bulkier set to help Ludicolo fit more into the "bulky" mold of my team (and also so I don't get fucked when Gorebyss crits my Ludicolo) but running max Speed is vital for it to keep Swords Dance Samurott from always outspeeding and mutilating it with Megahorn. Samurott is a pretty strong threat to the rest of my team, so it's pretty important for Ludicolo to at least act as a check. I have also debated with using Modest as it outspeeds everything in rain anyway (plus it actually lets me win 1vs1 against other Ludicolo) but just lets it hit much harder, but there's still the issue of losing to Jolly Samurott. :/ ​

Bought a one night stand, just a bootleg
A duplication of something authentic
Heart augmented, and it’s so hard to end it
I said peace before but this time I meant it​

· ····· ·
​

Threat List

I've already got an idea of nearly all of the weaknesses that this team has, but none of them are really very simple to change and making some of these changes will just make my team even weaker to other threats. If you're going to shoot me a rate, it'd be appreciated if you read through this so you know what I think about several threats that I've already faced with this team and how I'm meant to deal with them (or my thoughts on what I might've changed to deal with 'em).

Poison-types: I don't really like condensing my threat list to simply "Poison-types", but almost all of the pure Poison-types are really big problems for various reasons. Firstly, none of them have any difficulty switching into more than half of my team (Gurdurr / Garbodor / Skuntank), carry a super effective STAB on Ludicolo, and several of them can set up alongside Braviary (Arbok, Muk) while others outright stop its setup (Haze / Thunderbolt Weezing). Any matchup where there's a pure Poison-type I have to be super careful with how I play Golem, as it's often the key to getting rid of these guys. Arbok is honestly the worst of all of these because it just sets up on everything and outspeeds + OHKOes the two mons I have that can actually damage it (Ludicolo / Golem). I'm just glad that no one ever uses Arbok, even though it's so amazingly anti-meta right now it's not even funny. I've thought about using Leftovers > Lum Berry on Golem simply for the ability to restore Sturdy as I come in on the Coil, but even that's not a perfect fix for it since it can always just EQ or Seed Bomb or Aqua Tail the switch-in and then I lose anyway. Articuno: I have trouble with Articuno because it's retardedly bulky and I have next to nothing outside of Golem that can actually hit it hard. Skuntank does like ~35% to 4/0 Articuno with Poison Jab or Sucker Punch (which is easily Roosted off) while it gets cleanly 2HKOed by Ice Beam. I technically could Taunt the Roost but it outspeeds anyway and can just 2HKO with Ice Beam after the Taunt while still having a net gain of HP. It decimates Gurdurr and Ludicolo with Hurricane, while Brav can't touch it thanks to Ice Beam. Garbo can live a hit or two but that means I can't rely on it later to tank physical hits and spread residual damage later on, plus I also have to hit more than two Rock Blasts during its one shot at Articuno. The easiest direct fix to this would probably be to replace Golem for something like Regirock, EVed to take a few Ice Beams. While this would probably be an acceptable change, I'm really not fond of it because it makes me even weaker to stuff like Golurk who already are a big pain in the ass to my team, as well as the aforementioned Arbok and other Poison-types. There's not much else I could change to combat it without drastically messing up the team, though. :/ Golurk: Golurk isn't too big of an issue because many people will try to KO Golem with it or get up SR early in the match, and clearing it out early is great. I also have Ludicolo to OHKO it with Hydro Pump, and Skuntank / Gurdurr can both at least 2HKO it. The problem is that Garbodor is more or less 100% a free Golurk switch-in, and I have next to nothing that can reliably come in on Golurk without the risk of being KOed within a turn or two. My general process for dealing with smart opponents using Golurk is to Toxic the switch-in, then pop over to Braviary and see what I can do about stalling it out with Substitute + Roost until it's in Brave Bird KO range. It really can't do much damage outside of taking advantage of Garbodor, but I've had a few clever opponents put a ton of pressure on me with Golurk before, so props to them. I could probably deal with this better by switching out Rock Blast for Seed Bomb or something, but then again you don't 2HKO and Rock Blast has way more utility than Seed Bomb or Giga Drain anyway. Eelektross: Eelektross is annoying primarily because nothing on my team can OHKO it, while it does a fuckton to everything. I basically have to pick and choose what's most important in that match to punch a few hits in on it and then finish up with something like Ludicolo. Many of them lead off against Golem which makes my job somewhat easier, but I'll set up SR as they Giga Drain (don't attack first or they'll just recover it all back while KOing you lol) and then try to get a good hit in with Rock Blast. This is like the only situation where I wish I had Stone Edge because Rock Blast has a shitty tendency to never hit more than twice against Eelektross. After that though, I'll switch over to Skuntank or Ludicolo and finish it off. Both of those can also tank a Specs Thunderbolt if I need them to do so.Haunter: Although I carry some of the best answers to Haunter in the tier (Skuntank especially, and Rock Blast Garbodor / Golem aren't half bad checks either) it can still be an enormous pain to the rest of the team. Most notably, I need it out of the way before I try to begin setting up with Braviary, because SubDisable variants can Disable Brave Bird and then spam Sludge Bomb to try and crit and/or poison me and severely cut my chances of winning. It also beats Gurdurr if I mispredict with Ice Punch / Mach Punch and it outspeeds and drills Ludicolo with Sludge Bomb. It's not so much a threat that I have to change my team around for it, but it's really important to take out and I have to keep it in mind with every play I make. Spinners: They're not as big of an issue as you might imagine, given the fact that I carry two hazard users and no Ghost-type to spinblock. Adding a Ghost-type will not remove this weakness, despite what you've been taught. That's because each of the spinners in NU have their own ways to work around Ghost-types, and trying to patch my team with a random Ghost-type will probably make more holes than the ones that they might patch. Shell Smash Torkoal is probably my most prominent threat, as nothing can significantly damage it except Ludicolo kind of, and it hits surprisingly hard at +2. One of my few potential fixes for this is to make Ludicolo into a specially defensive variant, but then I lose all of the advantages that normal Ludicolo brings for me, most notably tying with Swords Dance Samurott. My general gameplan when facing Spinners is to lure them out and drill them with Ludicolo as soon as I can, or at least land a Toxic on them with Garbodor since all three of them (Armaldo, Wartortle, Torkoal) all like to come out on Garbo. It's mostly just being careful with Golem until I can be assured that they won't be around to spin away rocks (~29% HP for Wartortle and ~35% HP for Armaldo / Torkoal accounting for Leftovers; switching into SR and then pseudo-blocking their spin by KOing them with Garbodor's Rocky Helmet.)Rain Dance Mantine: Offensive Mantine is a rare threat, but like Articuno it isn't revenged easily by anything and it has the coverage to decimate just about everything on the team. It's really only a lesser threat because it's rather uncommon, but basically I have to just keep Golem's Sturdy intact (which is usually somewhat easy, given that offensive Mantine usually appears on pure Rain Dance teams that more often than not do not carry SR). Outside of Golem, I get to play the "predict circles around them" game while eating up their HP with their LO or sack Braviary while getting a shot in on it with Brave Bird, just so Skuntank can clean up shop with a Sucker Punch.

· ····· ·
​

Conclusion

I'll keep it short, since I doubt you want to read any more than you already have. This team has been incredibly fun to use throughout its lifespan, and I wanna shout out to everyone that's helped me out with it at some point or another but then that'd be too many people. I don't really have that much to say that I haven't already, but this would feel weird without any kind of formal ending. I don't expect much in the way of rates, considering that I know this team inside and out and there isn't too much to change without drastically altering the team. Think of it more like a reference point for those trying to get into NU, I guess. To everyone that I told this would be out "tomorrow", sorry for taking so long, but I hope the wait was worth it. Thanks for reading!

Moderator

I'm going to miss Slowking, but I think everything else going is for the best. The fact that Victreebell and Charizard are coming down may result in Sun teams becoming more common. I agree with Hot N Cold, too, Mesprit needs to get out of NU, the SubCM set is crazy.

A few rules of thumb - currently, we are not focused on updating any 'bad' Pokemon which have little to no effect on the current metagame. You might love Pidgeot to death, but I'm more interested in making sure Samurott, Emboar, and other top-tier Pokemon have up-to-date and quality analyses on-site. If you want to discuss any of these listings, have any corrections, or anything of the sort, please post about it here! I know I make a lot of mistakes, so please let me know if I messed something up. :P

I removed all reservations that were not acted upon. If you lost your reservation, tough luck - you made it ages ago and haven't done anything about it.

To clarify on how to interpret the readings: Unreserved, In-Progress, Completed. If the name of a Pokemon is blue or green, you cannot reserve it without speaking to me and the listed author first.

Deadlines

In order to produce analyses on a more timely fashion than we have been, I am instating a new policy for deadlines. You have one week after you post your reservation to put up a skeleton, and two weeks after the third QC check to have your analysis fully written. I am not going to be lenient and there will be no warnings - if you do not have work completed by the deadline, your analysis may be re-assigned to whomever actually wants to get the work done. If you miss a deadline multiple times, you will be temporarily banned from reserving analyses in NU, and if you continue missing them, I will give you an infraction. Please take deadlines seriously and get your work done!

---------

(TOP PRIORITY!)

As you can see from the bold red tag, the analyses under this heading are absolute top priority. I would greatly prefer it if you selected one of these analyses to work on rather than one from the standard section. If you take one of these, get them done QUICKLY. Hopefully we can get these done and out of the way before moving onto more trivial matters.

Amoonguss: Regenerator. Sludge Bomb should have priority over Clear Smog / Hidden Power on all sets. Clear Smog should be degraded to AC, a slash at best. Physically defensive set is probably best, possibly mixed defensive spread and/or offensive LO set. Dual status with Stun Spore + Spore, doubting that deserves an entire set but worth AC mention. Protect mentions. Rocky Helmet mentions, specifically for taking on Cinccino. Also needs C&C updated, mentions of Pokemon such as Gardevoir that beat Pokemon that Amoonguss is commonly paired with (Alomomola, Probopass, Carracosta, etc). Reserved by Raseri.

Charizard: This needs to be written ASAP. CherubAgent recently dropped the Charizard analysis which was partially written and has a complete skeleton, found here. Like the Ludicolo analysis, there is currently no on-site Charizard analysis and this is unacceptable. I need someone who can quickly and efficiently write to finish this analysis, please! Reserved by Amarillo.

Drifblim: Needs to be rewritten with the current meta in mind, especially since it's an older analysis. Several areas of the analysis mention "luring out special walls" which is never going to happen now since the Acrobatics set is easily the best/most popular set. I'd like to go over the usability of stuff like the SubCM set; in most scenarios SubCM Gardevoir sounds 100% better, especially when we're talking about tearing apart cores. Also the BP set sounds ehh, not sure on it. Also should probably confirm whether or not Unburden gets passed with BP; if so it might be a viable slash on the Acrobatics set, if not then w/e screw that. Disable needs a slash on it, too.

Eelektross: It's generally a recent analysis, but it needs to reflect the BW2 updates and such. CB is one of the best sets for it imo, and we definitely want Giga Drain > Grass Knot and talk about U-turn > Volt Switch. Sub +3 Attacks is also a potentially viable set - in total, this needs to have CB added, a very small number of mentions changed (add in Golurk mentions), Giga Drain added, and Sub + 3 Attacks discussed. Zebraiken.

Golurk: This needs to be written ASAP. We currently don't have an on-site Golurk analysis and that needs to change as soon as possible. Anyone who is willing to write quickly and well is free to pick this up - you can find a skeleton (credit to col49) here. Reserved by Raseri.

(Standard priority.)

This is where everything else that needs an update can be found. Not all of these analyses will require full updates - some only need a few new mentions, others need a set or two. If you're a new writer looking for something to begin your C&C career with, look here.

Ampharos: Not popular enough to deserve a revamp, despite being an old analysis. If we do get around to doing it, the quality of several sets needs to be questioned; particularly the latter three. Amoonguss needs a heftier mention in C&C, as HP Ice does surprisingly little to it.

Arbok: Coil set is worth a look-over, a solid anti-metagame Pokemon atm. Shed Skin makes setting up on Amoonguss + Alomomola somewhat viable, Rest + Shed Skin might be worth a look although it drastically cuts into Arbok's moveslots. Aqua Tail is probably the best coverage option alongside Gunk Shot; hits most of its resists and there's no real need for Seed Bomb anymore since Quagsire is gone (Carracosta?). Could use an entire analysis update as the Overview doesn't really play to its strengths and I'd like to see a revamped C&C section. Also, its partners mention Leavanny (wtf?). Reserved by Elegy96.

Armaldo: Is a somewhat new analysis, but needs some updates to reflect the new metagame. Aqua Tail needs to be mentioned to get rid of Golurk; Golurk mentions throughout need to be added. A Jolly spread that outruns Adamant Golurk might be AC-worthy. Is Swift Swim the best option for all non-defensive sets? Needs QC input on this. Needs to be touted as the best spinner in the tier, as it is.

Bastiodon: Probably needs more mention of how it beats the shit out of Cinccino, which is very nice. Musharna should probably hold priority as a better cleric overall, although it doesn't have Wish-passing. Magic Coat mention somewhere, reflecting Spores and such is cool. The analysis is okay as-is, could do with a revamp though.

Beheeyem: This is a pretty old analysis... when Analytic is released, probably need to go over its merits since it'll hit really fucking hard on the switch. There's not much else it can do that Gardevoir can't, though... Low priority. (DTC has said that Analytic is released, so we should talk about maybe a Specs set or very slow Substitute + 3 Atks set designed to force out Sawk/Gurdurr and hit something hard). Reserved by Flashrider57.

Bibarel: This is a really unexplored Pokemon with a lot of potential and a fairly weak analysis that looks untested (how did we let these slip through the cracks?). Quagsire being gone removed its best counter in existence, really, and Bibarel has several niches like SR + Taunt + Rain Dance / Sunny Day (which nothing else in NU gets, I think?). It's something we should play around with more eventually and find better sets, since the current analysis doesn't really do it justice.

Butterfree: A lot of Butterfree checks have been moving up (Cryogonal, Magmortar) and Golem is falling in usage, so we should probably go over it as a group in QC. The analysis overall is well-written (albeit a bit lengthy), so I'd prefer to not re-write it entirely, but we can go over the sets and add some tidbits here and there, if necessary.

Cacturne: A lot of illegalities have been changed (ie stuff like Drain Punch + Water Absorb), making Water Absorb the primary ability for any set not involving Encore (or Bullet Seed), really. It's also a lot better in the new metagame (Spikes are fantastic). I'd prefer to not remove it entirely, but it needs to be adapted to the current meta. Reserved by pokemon0078.

Camerupt: Updated to remove RU Pokemon. The tank set was primarily to handle Magmortar, little reason for it to exist anymore (Electric-types aren't really popular enough...). Offensive sets need more attention/testing. Also would like the C&C section to be expanded. The analysis was written in its heyday; it's okay but not -excellent- since so much is running around that flat-out beats it, so not worth our attention atm. Once the more important stuff is handled we can work on revamping this.

Cradily: Mediocre analysis, with little detail that the reader couldn't glean from just looking at the moves. Defensive set needs mentioning as a decent stop to Cinccino; Storm Drain also became legal with several moves. Mono-attacker and SD sets need to be re-looked at for viability. It hasn't been touched since February, so an update could be nice sometime in the near future.

Dragonair: Hasn't really been touched since March. Needs its sets to be revamped, DTC talked to me about revamping this a little while back so I'll leave this as his project for the time being. Would like to see a Marvel Scale RestTalk set, along with the current sets reworked.

Exeggutor: Well written throughout and analysis is mostly up to date. I want to rethink the usage of Psyshock on any/all sets, especially SubSunny Day since it's listed first; it was really only used to hit Cryo and Magmortar harder, so what purpose does it have now (aside from hitting Lickilicky harder?). Definitely benefits from the drop in Skuntank usage and rise of Absol. Not much that needs to be done, just a short discussion and a few SCMS edits. LumRest Exeggutor is superior to SubSitrus.

Flareon: I want to discuss a physical Guts set, which is now legal with Superpower. Flame Charge + Superpower + coverage sounds like a decent set. Otherwise well-written, any slight changes can just be added via SCMS.

Floatzel: Initial analysis is evidently very poor, distinctly lacking in every area and merely describing the purpose of the moves. The mixed rain set is much better in those regards. I also want to look into the viability of all sets. I anticipate that CB + rain sweeper (it gets Hydro Pump now) will likely stay, but BU / manual rain is sort of bad. A SubPass set also needs to be tested because SubPass is a fantastic strat and Floatzel is definitely fast enough to do it.

Golbat: Needs to be rewritten, as it's an old analysis. Needs mentions of stuff like Sawsbuck, Golurk and generally an update. (Checks & Counters could do with a good revamp, too.) Django wants U-turn to be mentioned as well. Reserved by CrobatFTW.

Gorebyss: It's a good analysis. We need to debate whether HP Bug or HP Electric (or HP Grass, but I don't think it has any advantages over HP Elec, which hits Mantine) is now the best option since Quagsire is gone, to hit Ludicolo / Mantine respectively. I don't think anything else needs to be done, except maybe testing the viability of Substitute + 3 Attacks in and outside of rain. This wouldn't be a set all on its own, but we would just change SubSmash to Substitute and slash Shell Smash behind both of the coverage attacks and obviously talk about the merits of each. I've played a little bit with Sub + 3atks and it's solid because Gorebyss forces switches so easily after like U-turns from Regirock.

Grumpig: Its niche (beating Magmortar and Heal Bell) has kind of left it behind. Dingo wants to see a CM set, which would probably be pretty cool since it smashes the regen cores. Not sure if DS is worth it.

Hypno: Very sparse analysis. C&C sections is awful and has like two things total (there's a lot of shit that beats Hypno). Baton Pass should be the only option in the fourth slot, TR makes it outclassed entirely by Beheeyem (and even Duosion / Musharna to an extent). Insomnia needs to be more prominent. Hypno is outclassed by pretty much every Psychic-type there is except maybe Chimecho, and the analysis should say that. It just needs to be updated and fleshed out.

Kadabra: I think the main set needs some shakeups. It's not strong enough to break anything even with LO, and Sash is generally just the better item overall. I'd also really prefer to see Encore > Sub / CM, since Kadabra has no business doing either (Alomomola's Scald breaks its Sub 100% of the time... :/) and Encore at least has some utility. Skuntank needs to be in C&C.

Kangaskhan: I'd like to see the first set be changed to a bulkier spread, with Adamant as the main nature. Double-Edge should be slashed in lieu of Return as well, because the power difference is really pretty huge. I also want a lot more emphasis on what Kangaskhan brings to the table: a fuckton of priority, modest bulk, and enough speed to outrun mostly everything it needs to. A couple of people have mentioned CB, which definitely needs a mention or two as well (maybe an entire set?). Also the C&C section is awful (Ghost-types as checks? Really?).

Lapras: Hydration set? Drill Run needs to be added to DD's AC, generally detail is lacking throughout the analysis and adding some would be really good. It just needs an overall rewrite and revamp.

Lickilicky: Why is Dragon Tail slashed before Body Slam? BS is generally the superior move in most situations, hitting surprisingly hard against most everything that switches in on Lickilicky. Very few mons can actually set up in front of Lickilicky anyway, not counting stuff like Gurdurr since Lickilicky loses to it anyway. Also not sure of the viability of the mono-attacker set; it seems that SubSD does everything that it wants to do but better.

Liepard: The release of Prankster and Dark Pulse (lol it had no STAB moves prior to BW2...) make Liepard somewhat viable, and the entire analysis needs to be revamped. It should probably have a Nasty Plot set as well as a weather set (can carry both Encore and Taunt, to one-up Murkrow / Volbeat). Reserved by Shelmet.

Luxray: Superpower + Guts being legal together is huge. Not sure about the viability of the mixed set since Quagsire is now gone and it's not such an effective lure. Defensive also lost its best niche in checking Braviary (Defiant), so not sure what we want to do with that. Not the highest priority mon that we need to revamp, but a lot of it has changed in the passing to BW2 so it'll probably need a lot of discussion.

Mantine: C&C is very poor, and I'd just like to see the writing be revamped overall.

Maractus: Storm Drain + Spikes is probably the set we're looking for, not Sunny Day + Spikes. It's still a cool niche and should go in OO, but SD is generally the best option and we should probably not be running a defensive set with Maractus (those 75/67/67 defenses, lol). LO Spikes / Synthesis / Giga Drain / coverage sounds ok. Knock Off should be mentioned in AC somewhere.

Marowak: Bonemerang needs to be mentioned to break Sturdy. A bulkier SR set needs mentioning somewhere, since it's not a bad user of it. Substitute is probably the best set overall, I'd rather use it before trying to build around TR. It's generally lacking in teammates / counters and information overall. Thunderpunch slash needs to go. Reserved by pokemon0078.

Miltank: SR being legal with Sap Sipper is huge, and Sap Sipper should be mentioned on all sets since nabbing a +1 Attack is awesome and Miltank is the bulkiest Pokemon with that ability. Mooffensive should really be only using Sap Sipper, Scrappy seems like more of a secondary thing if your team really struggles with ghosties. It doesn't necessarily need an update, just a few rewrites.

Murkrow: The current analysis is very low-quality and lacking in information. It mentions a grand total of two teammates: Swellow and a few spinners. Also the c&c section is rather poor. An update to this would be appreciated; the usefulness of Insomnia for uhhh Amoonguss needs to be emphasized, also Heat Wave is legal with Prankster now so Roost might be an ok option on the attacker set. Thunder Wave is also a good idea.

Probopass: C&C is mediocre, really only mentions Fighting-types and a few random mons with CC. Torterra, Golurk, etc need to be mentioned. Tangela is like 2HKOed by offensive Flash Cannon... The offensive set that DTC posted needs to be added as well. Teammates aren't particularly relevant, and I think we can just do a general update and be ok.

Raichu: Actually mentions like no offensive partners and gives Alomomola as an option. ?_? I'm interested in a few other sets, like something to do with Sub (SubEncore, SubNP?) and I'm pretty sure we can drop GK for Focus Blast. Espeed mentions can probably also go into AC or OO.

Simipour: The best of the Simis, but several sets have surfaced lately and they're better than the on-site ones. SubSalac is the most popular, and I'd honestly be using +Spe natures on everything if only to outrun Zangoose / Sawsbuck. It's well written but very old and needs a general update.

Swanna: Is in need of a full revamp. Brave Bird is no longer necessary now that Cryogonal is gone, and SubRoost is far and away the best set. Rain Dance + Roost with Hydration also sounds like a decent or outright good set. Choice might also be worthy of consideration. C&C is mediocre and doesn't really mention very much.

Tangela: Slash Synthesis next to Leech Seed and Knock Off, consider Hidden Power Ice over Hidden Power Rock as mortar left and few use Charizard (and you shouldn't really be trying to play mindgames with Charizard anyway...). For offensive, HP Rock should probably be replaced with HP Ice too, and then the Sludge Bomb slash removed and Synthesis slashed instead (first slash imo). Mention that it faces big competition from Amoonguss now and talk about its advantages / disadvantages over it - general revamp, cleanup, and addressing the current metagame.

Torkoal: Golurk mentions need to be added - anyone with SCMS access who wants to do this really quickly, please contact me! :)

Torterra: The tank set should really be 252 Atk / 252 Spe @ LO nowadays, since it demolishes Alomoonguss cores and it's probably the best set atm (WH / EQ / Synthesis / SR or Stone Edge). Ditch CB; it's mediocre and outclassed by LO. Rock Polish is o_k at best but should really be using a Jolly nature or else it misses out on Rotom-S, one of its few advantages as a booster over something like Gorebyss. Reserved by Zebraiken.

Ursaring: I really want this analysis to differentiate Ursaring from Zangoose, who is faster and carries many of the same features as Ursaring. Quick Feet, being weaker and only somewhat faster than Zangoose (only outspeeding the Simis, Charizard, and Sawsbuck), is really not worthy of a set anymore, imo. RestTalk Ursaring could be worth consideration as a status platform that can consistently switch into Amoong / Alomomola and tank statuses + hit harder as a result.

(In-progress - don't have a listing)

This section is primarily reserved for the analyses that were being worked on while the To-Do List was being put together, and thus don't have a listing of what's needed to be updated from the on-site analysis. If you're looking for an analysis to write, don't worry about this section - it's primarily for my own reference, as many of these analyses are already written and simply waiting for GP checks.

Everything in this section has already been worked on and finished so the on-site analysis is considered up-to-date and completed (or they require so few changes that it's not worth working on for the time being). If you have anything further to say about the analyses in this section, please do tell!

Like I said earlier, we're focusing on only relevant Pokemon to update at the current time. The following list is Pokemon that have been determined irrelevant or useless in the current metagame, and thus cannot be reserved. This list is not debatable.

Hide(Move your mouse to the hide area to reveal the content)Show HideHide Hide

There are a lot of stats that seem odd to me here:
Gardevoir being so high
Regirock and Wartortle being so high
Alomomola and Lanturn being so low
Smeargle being almost next to Bastiodon whens he's fantastic
Audino and Misdreavus being so low
Wynaut being so immensely low (below Dunsparce and Bibarel!)
Frillish and Cacturne being so low
Porygon and Sudowoodo being present at all.
Lickitung being so low when he's bulkier than Lickilicky by a significant amount.

I think we really should get stats for those higher up the ladder at some point as it's fairly obvious tht there are some terrible pokemon being used, likely by noobs, to reflect on what is truely good.
Edit: woops didnt see it there :p
Torkoal being used much more than Pinsir and Magmortar surprises me

-Gardevoir is a better special attacker than Mesprit (and a better Scarfer imo)
-Regirock has 200 base Defense, and is a complete stop to so many physical attackers. Don't underestimate it. Wartortle is kinda surprising though
-Yea, I agree completely with the third point
-Hey, Bastiodon works. Wanna stop Swellow? Braviary? Klinklang (Metal Burst adds up both hits right?)? Congrats.
-Audino is completely outclassed by Lickilicky, Regenerator isn't enough to save it when it can't do ANYTHING outside of Toxic for damage. Misdreavus is great though
-I think Wynaut's so low because.... ummm... idk?
-Agree with this point too
-Yea, why the hell do people use Porygon? PORYGON? EXPLAIN THIS SHIT.
-Meh, I've always liked Lickilicky more. Sorry.
-Defeatist, no bulk, average Speed, only slightly higher than average attack, SR weak... Plus, SWELLOW/BRAVIARY.

Leavers:
-DUGTRIO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I love you too much!!!!
-THE SAME WITH SWELLOOOOOOOOOW!!!!
-SLOWKING TOO?! WHY MUST HALF MY TEAM LEAVE THE TIER?!
-Gorebyss? I haven't used you since NU CCAT started, acceptable loss.
-Lanturn's an interesting leave, won't really shake up too much
-Rhydon? Well I guess RU needed something to replace Rhyperior... At least the birds are leaving with it.
-Scolipede leaving? ALL HAIL ROSELIA AND CACTURNE!
-Good riddance hail. I won't miss you at all. GTFO out of my NU, don't come back.
-Braviary, imo, has always been inferior to Swellow, but now Dodrio gets usage. Cool. EDIT: Cinccino too.
-Klinklang loss sucks for everyone honestly... Sawk for king.

Excited for Victreebel and Charizard. My team doesn't really have problems with those that are leaving anyways, but I guess I don't have to run Scarf Golduck for Braviary and Swellow. But oh well. And Crawdaunt looks like a fucking boss as well. With its two STAB moves, Cacturne, Shiftry, Zweilous, Carvahna, and Croagunk are the only things that resist both.

-Gardevoir is a better special attacker than Mesprit (and a better Scarfer imo) They play pretty different roles though, sub cm Mesprit outclasses Gardevoir, while her access to Wish and Heal bell set her apart. I agree that she's good, but not top NU imo.
-Hey, Bastiodon works. Wanna stop Swellow? Braviary? Klinklang (Metal Burst adds up both hits right?)? Congrats.I'd much rather use Magneton
-Audino is completely outclassed by Lickilicky, Regenerator isn't enough to save it when it can't do ANYTHING outside of Toxic for damage. Misdreavus is great though.While this is very true, I see quite a lot of Audino on ladder.

When you add those calcs, the fact that Bastiodon has Leftovers, Bastiodon's calc is with a Life Orb, and the fact you're using Max/ Max Bold Eviolite Magneton means that Bastiodon really isn't as useless as you think.

Moderator

ps:@ww: because if you look close enough, there's Jynx close by on the 21st, and running 4 Ice-types really compromises your position. It's pretty clear, though, that a lot of teams do run snover/glaceon/rotom-f/jynx. It's only natural that some teams don't like the prospect of going full offense without even SR.

@charge: why would you ever use specs pikachu ==

pps: usually 1337 stats are more accurate representation of power, but it is not the case in a metagame where very few individuals have ladder score above that threshold. in other words: take this with a grain of salt. Also look at the regular usage stat, which has a lot more balanced usage percentage and shitty things actually stay on the bottom

^I, along with most other people, would actually like some proof for this. 20 base HP is the same as Shuckle, but without the amazing Defense/ Sp. Def stats to back it up. It also hits like a little girl, so its pretty much Taunt bait 100% of the time.

^Trust me, his defenses do get amazing with Eviolite. His advantage over Shuckle is that it can burn targets with Will-O-Wisp and heal itself with Pain split. And it can attack with Night Shade. I have used him in a NU team and it did extremely well.
Here is a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71KR7DJseo4
EDIT: ^bad example